Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Book Review: Distant Hours

I have read a few of Kate Morton's books and enjoyed them, so when I heard that she had just come out with a new book called The Distant Hours, I immediately put it on my library list queue.

Well it took me a few days to read, not just because I was at the cape basking in the sun and smelling hydrangeas, but because I was sick and this book made my head spin worse.
It made my head spin because it is from the point of view of at least six different people and set in two different time periods and the further back in time one does not go linearly. So for a sick person, it was a little confusing. Also I couldn't tell if there was magic, or mental incapacity in some of the characters, or both. (Having finished it I'm going to say mental incapacity, magic, and secrets came into play in making me dizzy and not understand what was going on for a while.)

Though I eventually recovered from my cold, figured out all the jumping around, and got 100 pages in and figured out the twists of the plot lines and could not put it down. I hushed my mother, I asked Tallman if I could stay up late and read with the light on, only to immediately pick up the book again upon waking. All those characters points of view and the multiple time periods that made the book so confusing at first made it enthralling once I recovered from its dizzying effect.

In order to not spoil anything, because I recommend you read this book, my summary will be limited to: A publisher finds out secrets about her mother and her favorite childhood book, some secrets are huge and important, some secrets people die for, some secrets bring people together, some don't exist and are just imagined.
Yeah, I know that summary was confusing, but seriously, go read the book, and stick with it through the first bits where it is a little confusing, because it gets really really good.
Enjoy!